Today's dissolution marks the formal start of a five-and-a-half week election campaign. That's long by the standards of recent elections, even though for most of us it seems to have been full-on for an age already.

My earlier posts catalogue the famous Midlands marginals which have acted like a vicious two-party see-saw - while some clamber-on, others are unceremoniously thrown off.

In 2010, the Conservatives won 15 seats here and Labour lost 14 bringing their respective share of our 63 constituencies to 36 Conservatives, 24 Labour and 3 Liberal Democrats in the now-defunct Parliament.

The Royal Stoke was one of several hospitals in England to declare a "major incident" earlier in the month

As the pre-election tension mounts, so do the stress levels of the election strategists, contemplating parts of the country like ours, famous for our marginal or "swing" seats, which can have such a significant bearing on the outcome.

More than half of the 188 staff at the new library's staff are to be cut, and opening hours halved

Next year's £117m savings proposed by Birmingham City Council mean 1,100 more job losses.

Stoke-on-Trent City Council set out plans to save £31m with the loss of 500 jobs on the very day the chancellor's Autumn Statement confirmed we are not even halfway through the so-called 'Austerity Cuts'.